U.S. funding to the main U.N. agency for Palestinians was suspended in 2024 under the Joe Biden administration, but people online have claimed it was the result of President Donald Trump signing an executive order upon his return to office.
The order, one of many issued by Trump on Jan. 20, the day he was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, temporarily suspended U.S. foreign aid pending reviews of existing development programs.
People on social media, including an X post viewed more than 1.6 million times, said this meant Trump's order had halted U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
But U.S. funding to UNRWA was already frozen, having been so since 2024.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden, along with more than a dozen countries, stopped funding the agency in January 2024 after Israel accused 12 of its 13,000 employees of participating in the deadly Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the Gaza war.
The United Nations said in August that an investigation found nine staff members may have been involved.
The halt to funding will last until March 2025, according to legislation that ratified the decision.
There is no record of U.S. funding to UNRWA being resumed.
The Trump administration previously cut funding to the agency in 2018 before the Biden administration restarted it again in April 2021.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
VERDICT
Misleading. U.S. funding to UNRWA was already suspended in 2024 following accusations against some of its staff by Israel.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
